


Chess Pieces

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-08
Updated: 2013-09-08
Packaged: 2017-12-25 23:05:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/958669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma goes to find Jefferson after she realizes FTL is true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chess Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> Dipping my toes into the water of Mad Swan. Not strictly shippy, but pre-shippy.

With the curse broken and Henry breathing after not breathing and scaring her more than anything ever has before it’s hard to give a damn about anything else. For the first time in twenty-nine years she’s a daughter. She’s a mom. She wants to be selfish and just be those two things but there’s a sheriff’s badge clipped on her belt and no one else to do the job.

If Henry was right about the curse than he was right about Graham being murdered, but she can’t face that right now.

It’s the call about the nurse in the basement that takes her away from Henry’s bedside. It doesn’t make it any easier that the person she leaves watching over him is his grandmother, though for right now it is easier to think of Mary Margaret as that rather than being her mother. At least she only has to go down a flight of stairs; she’s still in the same building as her son if he needs her.

“What the hell is this place?” The place is dank, damp, and dark which seems like three things you don’t want if you’re treating sick people. The whole place will have to be explored but for now it’s the woman that has her attention; she’s starting to come around.

“I’ve never seen this place in my life.” Whale kneels next to the nurse, feeling for her pulse. There’s something different about his demeanor, but she’s had enough changes today and she’s not in the mood to ask who he was in some other world. He still seems to be a doctor and that’s enough for her right now.

“Brought me tea,” is the only answer Emma can get when she asks the nurse what happened. Whether it’s the curse or something else that has her addled, Emma doesn’t have a clue. For all she knows the woman could have been having tea with the queen in some fairy tale castle when the curse was cast.

Or in Wonderland with a Mad Hatter.

“Tell Mary Margaret I had to go check something out,” she tells Whale. She wonders what will be harder, remembering that Mary Margaret is really Snow White, or that Snow White is her mother.

There’s literally no one on the road. It’s twilight zone kind of weird and not unlike the first time she ended up at Jefferson’s. At least this time there’s no fog. She hopes there’s no guns or sharpened scissors either, but at least she’s prepared with a weapon of her own.

“Jefferson?” When he doesn’t answer her first knock, the ringing doorbell, or the second knock she tries the handle and finds it turns. Maybe it’s breaking and entering, but it’s not exactly like anyone’s going to arrest her. “Hello?”

He’s not in any of the rooms on the first floor. Maybe he’s outside, maybe he’s on his way to reclaim his daughter, but instinct has her heading up the stairs. The first door to the right is open. It’s a room done in pink and white, with lace above the windows and a garden of flowers painted on the wall. Jefferson sits on the floor with a miniature teacup in one hand.

“You were telling the truth.” It’s not an apology, not really. It’s a statement of fact, but it’s about as close to ‘I’m sorry’ as she’s going to get with a guy who held a gun to her head. And poisoned her, which was why she’d come in the first place. “You have something to do with what happened today?”

“I’m just a pawn, moving so another piece can be brought onto the board.” He reminds her, strangely, of Gold in the way that he can’t seem to stop moving even when staying still. His hands are in constant motion, packing and unpacking the child’s tea set.

“This isn’t a game.” Henry had died today. A poisoned fucking apple had killed her kid, and even if it seems like something from a storybook it’s real. “Did you do something to a nurse at the hospital?”

“The white queen was locked in a box for too long. It was time.” He shakes his head slowly. “Too much time and never enough.”

“The nurse is a queen?” Yesterday she wouldn’t have expected anything he said to make sense. It seems like not everything has changed.

“You are still looking too much with your eyes, rabbit. Dragons guard treasure. They dwell beneath the earth and keep precious things hidden.” He rolls a saucer between his thumb and finger, hands never stopping but infinitely careful with each movement. “Some precious things.”

“Someone was locked up down there this whole time?” She can’t even fathom someone being locked up for the year she’s been here, let alone the twenty-eight before that. If it’s true she’s failed at her job.

“Her majesty fears being alone, so the worst punishment she can give is to force others to be alone. To be unloved.” For the first time since she’s walked into the room he looks at her. “You know how she clings to her son, how anyone else who dares love him is a threat.”

“She tried to kill me.” It was meant to be her, eating that turnover. She might have wished that it was, except that there would have been no one to protect Henry. He would have grieved and she would have slept. Regina would have been pleased.

“Must be doing something right.” He packs up the tea set. She half expects him to carry it out of the room, but he pushes it under the bed and doesn’t look like he’s in a hurry to move.

“If the curse is broken why haven’t you gone after your daughter?” She’s itching to get back to Henry, and it’s only been an hour, not three decades.

“Not everyone is the hero of their story.” Jefferson shrugs. “Not everyone should have their happy ending.”

“Maybe we don’t, but our kids should. You should ask her what she wants.” Emma reaches down to offer a hand. He looks like he can use some help getting up.


End file.
